Let me introduce you to my secret weapon of spring cooking -- the frozen peas. As soon
as the days get a little longer, we all like to imagine eating baby peas freshly plucked
from the vines or asparagus just pulled out of the ground. But if you live in Boston,
like I do, that’s a fantasy. I am sure that somewhere in the world all sorts of lovely
green things are coming out of the ground. You know -- in warm happy places like California
and Italy. But here, it’s business as usual. The produce I have to work with is the same
supermarket stuff that was available to me in January. That’s when this green farro
risotto comes to the rescue. It never fails to give me that spring vibe even if my local
produce is nonexistent.
Set a 3 to 4 quart pot over moderately low heat. Add a couple of Tablespoons of olive
oil, 2 diced leeks, and a pinch of salt. If you’ve never cooked with leeks before, let
me just warn you that they can be very sandy, so you should rinse them between the layers
to make sure they are clean. You can also replace the leeks with shallots or yellow
onions or skip them entirely.
Cover the pot and let the leeks cook until they start to turn translucent. Then open
the pot and keep cooking them until they turn slightly golden. You don’t need to stir
them constantly, but don’t neglect them either.
Remove half of the leeks from the pot to use in the pea sauce. You’ll have to use your
imagination here and pretend that half of the leeks are still in the pot. I removed
them all because there is a certain kid in my family who is having an issue with leeks
at the moment, and I didn’t want to ruin his lunch. Don’t worry, I won’t let those
leeks go to waste, I’ll just add them on top of the risotto in the end.
Add one and a half cups of pearled farro. It’s very important that the farro you use
is pearled (in other words, polished). This kind of farro will have occasional light spots
and will be many shades of beige. Whole farro will be evenly brown because it still has
the bran attached, and it will be way too chewy for this dish. Be careful which farro
you buy because it’s not always labeled clearly.
Add 3 cups of water and some salt.
Stir and cover the pot. Turn up the heat to high and when the steam starts to escape from
the lid, turn it down to low and let the farro cook for 30 minutes. Just a warning that some
farro sold in the stores is quick cooking. If that’s what you are using, follow directions
on the package for the water amount and timing. If you are using regular pearled farro it
should take 30 to 40 minutes to cook depending on how polished it is.
While our farro is cooking, let’s make the sauce and the topping.
We’ll need the zest from 1 lemon and a couple of teaspoons of lemon juice. Any frozen peas
will work for this dish, but the ones labeled petite are usually the sweetest. Measure out
roughly a cup and a half of peas. Add enough liquid to just cover them. I like to use half
water and half heavy cream. Put them in a microwave or cook in a pot until the peas
defrost and warm up. But don’t boil them. Put into a blender. Add half of the leeks
(or shallots or onions) that you’ve cooked, the lemon zest and juice, and a generous pinch
of salt. And blend it all up starting on low speed and gradually working up to high. Once
you get to “high”, run the blender for a couple of minutes. I find that most home
cooks stop blending stuff as soon as they can’t see any pieces. But if you want a
really smooth puree, you really need to give it a few minutes. Taste and add more salt
and lemon juice as needed.
For the topping you can use whatever green vegetables you can get: green beans, asparagus,
bok choi. Mushrooms aren’t green, but they work really well as a topping too. Hey, you
can even use some warmed up frozen peas. Today I am using asparagus because that’s what
looked good. Snap the woody ends and cut the asparagus into bite size pieces. I think diagonal
looks pretty, but it’s not like it tastes any better, so cut any which way you want.
If you want a more delicate look, you can cut the tips in half.
It’s been 30 minutes, so let’s check up on our farro. We still have a little water
left, but it tastes almost done, so I’ll just rely on the resting period to finish
it. Add a little butter and the pea sauce. Bring the pot to a simmer stirring constantly.
I know it looks like a soup, but it will thicken. Once you get a simmer, take the pot off heat.
Taste and add more salt, lemon juice and butter as needed. I wanted more butter. There is
a Russian expression that you can’t ruin a porridge with butter. I couldn’t agree
more. But if you want to make this dish vegan, you can leave out all the dairy and use olive
oil. Cover the pot and let it sit off the heat for 10 minutes. During this time the
starch in the farro will thicken the sauce and the farro will get a little softer.
While the farro is resting, let’s cook the asparagus topping. Set a large skillet over
high heat. Add a little olive oil and a little butter and wait for them to get hot. If you
are using butter, it should just start to turn brown. If you are only using oil, wait
for it to get very ripply. Add the asparagus. You want it to be close to a single layer,
but not quite. Add some salt, and cook without stirring until it gets golden brown. This
will take 2 to 4 minutes, so be patient. Let’s see how it’s doing. Good. We got a little
color. Make sure to check a couple of pieces.
Let’s give it a stir and then leave it alone again.
After another minute, we picked up a bit more color and can give it another stir.
Once all the asparagus turns bright green and has occasional brown spots, taste a piece.
You don’t want it to feel like hard sticks, but you don’t want it to be mushy either.
Take the pan off heat. Since I left the leeks out of my risotto, I’ll add them to the
asparagus. Give it a generous squirt of lemon and a sprinkle of salt. As always, don’t
forget to taste and adjust.
If you can’t serve immediately, get the asparagus out of the pan since the leftover
heat can make it mushy and stringy. See how much our risotto thickened. I find with risotto,
it’s always safer to go wetter. Otherwise it stiffens up and doesn’t taste creamy.
Put the asparagus on top, plus any green things you have on hand. I have some tiny arugula,
scallions, chives, and dill. A little drizzle of olive oil and we are done.
This is both spring like and also hearty. So in case it’s too early for short sleeves,
this is just the dish.
Here are more culinary tutorials to check out and a link to my online classes is in
the description below.